GOP convention planners watch as Isaac targets New Orleans

TAMPA, Fla. – Republican convention officials plan to stick with their current three-day convention schedule, but are keeping a careful eye on Isaac, as the tropical storm heads toward the Gulf Coast.

“Obviously, our first concern is for the people who are in the path of the storm,” Mitt Romney campaign strategist Russ Schriefer said at the convention’s Monday morning media briefing.

Convention officials are taking a “wait and see attitude,” he said, adding that he was “not gonna answer the hypothetical ‘what if, what if’” questions about possible changes to the Tuesday through Thursday schedule.

The main concern for schedulers is the likelihood that Isaac will slam into the Louisiana or Mississippi coast just as the convention gets underway. The storm is forecast to become a hurricane as it crosses over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico in the next 24 hours, and is currently projected to hit land just south of New Orleans late Tuesday night.